Named after an influential Aboriginal woman of colonial Sydney, Barangaroo is the most important reinvention of Sydney’s historic center for decades. The precinct is a globally significant, 22-hectare, AUD$6+ billion waterfront renewal project that redefines the western edge of Sydney Harbor. The Barangaroo precinct will support more than 24,000 permanent jobs, generate approximately $2 billion per annum to the NSW economy, and provide over 11-hectares of newly-accessible public land. Its three redevelopment areas: Barangaroo Reserve, Central Barangaroo, and Barangaroo South combine recreational, commercial development with residential and civic spaces, to create a stimulating network of new landmarks on Sydney’s waterfront. On August 22, 2015, Barangaroo Reserve was the first phase in the 3-district master plan to open.

Barangaroo Reserve is the re-creation of a “Club Cape” headland that restores the visual geography of Sydney Harbor. Using industry-first technology, a concrete container port was reborn as a naturalistic rocky outcrop headland park, with more than 75,000 plantings native to the Sydney region. Guided by geomorphologic studies, historical maps, and early paintings, the design of the headland includes a foreshore constructed from 10,000 sandstone blocks excavated directly from the site. Pedestrian and bicycle pathways are separated by a low, one-meter-wide sandstone wall known as the “1836 Wall,” the symbolic marking of the original pre-colonial shoreline.

Selected to participate in the Clinton Global Initiative and the One Planet Living program, Barangaroo Reserve kept the highest ecological goals always in sight. All existing materials were reused on-site and recycled to form the headland, including the kilometer of concrete caissons and asphalt from the container port and materials excavated from the Northern Cove. Hidden beneath the artificial headland, the Cutaway is a super-sized void formed through sandstone excavation operations and flexible enough to host art exhibitions, music performances, or a future Aboriginal Cultural Center. After more than a century, the once-scarred promontory is now visually-reunited with its sister headlands, marking the transformation of one of the city’s oldest industrial sites into a modern reinvention of its more sustainable past.

Client: Barangaroo Delivery Authority
Completion: 2015 - Barangaroo Reserve; 2025 - Barangaroo Precinct
Size: 6 hectares - Barangaroo Reserve; 22 hectares - Barangaroo Precinct

Collaborators:
Lead Designer: PWP Landscape Architecture, Berkeley, California in association with Johnson Pilton Walker
Project Management: Advisian Pty Ltd
General Contractor: Lend Lease (formerly Baulderstone Pty Ltd), Sydney, Australia
Architect: WMK
Quarry Operation and Chief Stone Mason: Troy Stratti
Horticulturalist: Stuart Pittendrigh
Soils Engineer: Simon Leake, SESL Australia
Construction Observation: Tract Landscape Architects
Civil and Structural Engineers: Robert Bird Group and Aurecon
Hydraulic Engineer: Warren Smith and Partners
Construction Management: Evans and Peck
Marine Engineer: Hyder Consulting
Geotechnical Engineer: Douglas Partners
Traffic Engineer: Halcrow
Lighting Engineer: Webb Australia Group
Wayfinding and Signage: Emery Studio
Historic Interpretation: Judith Rintoul
History and Arts: Peter Emmett
Landscape Contractor: Regal Innovations
Plant Procurement Nursery: Andreasens Green